Residual Stress Effects in the Scratch Adhesion Testing of Tantalum Thin Films

1993 ◽  
Vol 308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard L. White ◽  
John Nelson ◽  
William W. Gerberich

ABSTRACTThe effect of residual stress on the scratch adhesion critical load has been measured for sputtered tantalum films. In this single metallurgical system, six different failure modes could be observed, ranging from ductile ploughing to extensive spallation. For tantalum films deposited on silicon substrates, a 15% decrease in critical load was observed as the film residual stress increased from -1.1 GPa to +1.0 GPa. A larger percentage decrease (50%) was observed for films deposited on softer AIMg/NiP substrates. Film spallation was more extensive for films deposited over a thin carbon layer and for these films critical loads increased slightly with film stress. These results are substantially in contradiction with existing quantitative models for the scratch adhesion test and indicate that failure by shear at the film-substrate interface can be more important than failure by compressive buckling.

1996 ◽  
Vol 440 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. E. Houston

AbstractStress in thin films plays a critical role in many technologically important areas. The role is a beneficial one in strained layer superlattices where semiconductor electrical and optical properties can be tailored with film stress. On the negative side, residual stress in thin-film interconnects in microelectronics can lead to cracking and delamination. In spite of their importance, however, surface and thin-film stresses are difficult to measure and control, especially on a local level. In recent studies, we used the Interfacial Force Microscope (IFM) in a nanoindenter mode to survey the nanomechanical properties of Au films grown on various substrates. Quantitative tabulations of the indentation modulus and the maximum shear stress at the plastic threshold showed consistent values over individual samples but a wide variation from substrate to substrate. These values were compared with film properties such as surface roughness, average grain size and interfacial adhesion and no correlation was found. However, in a subsequent analysis of the results, we found consistencies which support the integrity of the data and point to the fact that the results are sensitive to some property of the various film/substrate combinations. In recent measurements on two of the original substrate materials we found a direct correlation between the nanomechanical values and the residual stress in the films, as measured globally by a wafer warping technique. In the present paper, we review these earlier results and show recent measurements dealing with stresses externally applied to the films which supports our earlier conclusion concerning the role of stress on our measurements. In addition, we present very recent results concerning morphological effects on nanomechanical properties which add additional support to the suggestion that near-threshold indentation holds promise of being able to measure stress on a very local level


1991 ◽  
Vol 239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine B. Masters ◽  
N. J. Salamon

ABSTRACTA recently developed geometrically nonlinear stress-curvature relation based on a minimization of the total strain energy, which predicts a bifurcation in shape as the magnitude of intrinsic film stress increases, is discussed in this paper. It is compared with the linear theories of Stoney and Brenner & Senderoff for a thin molybdenum film on silicon substrates with various thicknesses. Although the ratio of film to substrate elastic modulus is only 2, Stoney's equation generates significant error for this film/substrate system and the Brenner & Senderoff relation should be used for calculating initial film stress when plate deflections are small. When deflections exceed approximately half the substrate thickness the Brenner & Senderoff equation produces over 10% error and consequently, the nonlinear stress-deflection relation should be used to relate plate curvatures to initial film stress.


Author(s):  
Michel Fialin ◽  
Guy Rémond

Oxygen-bearing minerals are generally strong insulators (e.g. silicates), or if not (e.g. transition metal oxides), they are included within a rock matrix which electrically isolates them from the sample holder contacts. In this respect, a thin carbon layer (150 Å in our laboratory) is evaporated on the sections in order to restore the conductivity. For silicates, overestimated oxygen concentrations are usually noted when transition metal oxides are used as standards. These trends corroborate the results of Bastin and Heijligers on MgO, Al2O3 and SiO2. According to our experiments, these errors are independent of the accelerating voltage used (fig.l).Owing to the low density of preexisting defects within the Al2O3 single-crystal, no significant charge buildup occurs under irradiation at low accelerating voltage (< 10keV). As a consequence, neither beam instabilities, due to electrical discharges within the excited volume, nor losses of energy for beam electrons before striking the sample, due to the presence of the electrostatic charge-induced potential, are noted : measurements from both coated and uncoated samples give comparable results which demonstrates that the carbon coating is not the cause of the observed errors.


2003 ◽  
Vol 779 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. John Balk ◽  
Gerhard Dehm ◽  
Eduard Arzt

AbstractWhen confronted by severe geometric constraints, dislocations may respond in unforeseen ways. One example of such unexpected behavior is parallel glide in unpassivated, ultrathin (200 nm and thinner) metal films. This involves the glide of dislocations parallel to and very near the film/substrate interface, following their emission from grain boundaries. In situ transmission electron microscopy reveals that this mechanism dominates the thermomechanical behavior of ultrathin, unpassivated copper films. However, according to Schmid's law, the biaxial film stress that evolves during thermal cycling does not generate a resolved shear stress parallel to the film/substrate interface and therefore should not drive such motion. Instead, it is proposed that the observed dislocations are generated as a result of atomic diffusion into the grain boundaries. This provides experimental support for the constrained diffusional creep model of Gao et al.[1], in which they described the diffusional exchange of atoms between the unpassivated film surface and grain boundaries at high temperatures, a process that can locally relax the film stress near those boundaries. In the grains where it is observed, parallel glide can account for the plastic strain generated within a film during thermal cycling. One feature of this mechanism at the nanoscale is that, as grain size decreases, eventually a single dislocation suffices to mediate plasticity in an entire grain during thermal cycling. Parallel glide is a new example of the interactions between dislocations and the surface/interface, which are likely to increase in importance during the persistent miniaturization of thin film geometries.


2002 ◽  
Vol 749 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Barrioz ◽  
Stuart J. C. Irvine ◽  
D. Paul

ABSTRACTZnS is a material of choice in the optical coating industry for its optical properties and broad transparency range. One of the drawbacks of ZnS is that it develops high compressive intrinsic stress resulting in large residual stress in the deposited layer. This paper concentrates on the evolution of residual stress reduction in ZnS single layers, depending upon their deposition rate or the substrate temperature during deposition (i.e. 22 °C and 133 °C). The substrate preparation is addressed for consideration of layer adhesion. Residual stress of up to − 550 MPa has been observed in amorphous/poor polycrystalline ZnS layers, deposited on CMX and Float glass type substrates, by electron beam evaporation at 22 °C, with a surface roughness between 0.4 and 0.8 nm. At 133 °C, the layer had a surface roughness of 1 nm, the residual stress in the layer decreased to − 150 MPa, developing a wurtzite structure with a (002) preferred orientation. In situ stress measurements, using a novel optical approach with a laser-fibre system, were carried out to identify the various sources of stress. A description of this novel in situ stress monitor and its advantages are outlined. The residual stress values were supported by two ex situ stress techniques. The surface morphology analysis of the ZnS layers was carried out using an atomic force microscope (AFM), and showed that stress reduced layers actually gave rougher surfaces.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 472-479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qing-Nan Wang ◽  
Lei Shi ◽  
Wei Li ◽  
Wen-Cui Li ◽  
Rui Si ◽  
...  

The designed Cu/C/SiO2 catalyst combines the favourable properties of carbon and silica, thus showing improved selectivity associated with good stability.


2011 ◽  
Vol 1299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ping Du ◽  
I-Kuan Lin ◽  
Yunfei Yan ◽  
Xin Zhang

ABSTRACTSilicon carbide (SiC) has received increasing attention on the integration of microelectro-mechanical system (MEMS) due to its excellent mechanical and chemical stability at elevated temperatures. However, the deposition process of SiC thin films tends to induce relative large residual stress. In this work, the relative low stress material silicon oxide was added into SiC by RF magnetron co-sputtering to form silicon oxycarbide (SiOC) composite films. The composition of the films was characterized by Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis. The Young’s modulus and hardness of the films were measured by nanoindentation technique. The influence of oxygen/carbon ratio and rapid thermal annealing (RTA) temperature on the residual stress of the composite films was investigated by film-substrate curvature measurement using the Stoney’s equation. By choosing the appropriate composition and post processing, a film with relative low residual stress could be obtained.


Author(s):  
Yixian Wang ◽  
Dengchao Wang ◽  
Michael V. Mirkin

Along with more prevalent solid-state nanopores, glass or quartz nanopipettes have found applications in resistive-pulse and rectification sensing. Their advantages include the ease of fabrication, small physical size and needle-like geometry, rendering them useful for local measurements in small spaces and delivery of nanoparticles/biomolecules. Carbon nanopipettes fabricated by depositing a thin carbon layer on the inner wall of a quartz pipette provide additional means for detecting electroactive species and fine-tuning the current rectification properties. In this paper, we discuss the fundamentals of resistive-pulse sensing with nanopipettes and our recent studies of current rectification in carbon pipettes.


2008 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
X. Feng ◽  
Y. Huang ◽  
A. J. Rosakis

Current methodologies used for the inference of thin film stress through curvature measurements are strictly restricted to uniform film stress and system curvature states over the entire system of a single thin film on a substrate. By considering a circular multilayer thin film/substrate system subjected to nonuniform temperature distributions, we derive relations between the stresses in each film and temperature, and between the system curvatures and temperature. These relations featured a “local” part that involves a direct dependence of the stress or curvature components on the temperature at the same point, and a “nonlocal” part, which reflects the effect of temperature of other points on the location of scrutiny. We also derive relations between the film stresses in each film and the system curvatures, which allow for the experimental inference of such stresses from full-field curvature measurements in the presence of arbitrary nonuniformities. These relations also feature a “nonlocal” dependence on curvatures making full-field measurements of curvature a necessity for the correct inference of stress. The interfacial shear tractions between the films and between the film and substrate are proportional to the gradient of the first curvature invariant, and can also be inferred experimentally.


2010 ◽  
Vol 519 (4) ◽  
pp. 1441-1444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Roslyn Oh ◽  
Kui Yao ◽  
Choi Lan Chow ◽  
Francis Eng Hock Tay

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